Memories of You
by LiquifiedStars
Summary: One shot past Ladybug AU. Alice was on her way to the Weastern Front where her Cat Noir Jack was, until Plagg came crashing in carrying the ring of the Black Cat.


**_This one shot was based on a Furious Fiction entry I wrote earlier in the year. My Furious Fictions can be found on my blog. _**

**_I must warn you, I actually cried writing this, but I was also listening to 'My Immortal' by Evenescence which was partly to blame. _**

It was cold. It was dark. It was silent. Alice lit a small lamp in her cabin and looked out over the snow covered peaks shining luminescent under the full moon. An avalanche had sent snow cascading over the train lines, forcing the locomotive to be stranded for several hours at the outpost station. It wasn't a delay that she needed. It left too much time to think - to remember.

Alice sat at the cramped bureau taking out her diary from her satchel. To her dismay, the inkwell had all but frozen. That familiar tightness began to rise in her chest as tears threatened to fall. She had tried to ignore it for so long, ran away from it, buried it, fled all over Europe to escape it. The only relief she had was to write it down. Pages and pages of letters, thoughts, dreams and nightmares that would never be read by their intended recipient. Pushing the book to one side, she was too harsh and it and it fell to the ground, spilling its contents with it. Programs from plays in France, cabarets in Switzerland, music halls in Austria any stage anywhere that she could forget herself and for a moment suspended in time, become someone else. Another name, another face. It was still a mask that she hid behind, just not a visible one.

Underneath the piles of memories was one picture she couldn't tear away from. She held it tentatively, her hands shaking from emotion. The picture might have been sepia, but in her mind she could see it in vivid colour. A handsome blonde man in a military uniform looking proudly at the camera, at her. The photo was taken the day they revealed themselves to each other, the day before he left for the front. She closed her eyes and could feel the softness of his hair, the velvety ears of his transformation, the sound of his purr as she scratched in just the right spot and the piercing green cat eyes that she first fell in love with. She tucked the picture carefully back into her diary that held all the things she should have said, but it was too late. Instinctively she reached up to hold the ring that had hung around her neck, but now the locket hung alone.

The wind swirled past the window just like it did on that night in 1918. She remembered it like it was yesterday. Alice had left London and was waiting for her transport from Dover. She was with the medical corp on her way to the Weastern Front to join him when a black blob crashed through her window. She picked up the little black kwami who was holding on tightly to the ring of the black cat. Her black cat, her Cat Noir.

"He wasn't transformed... I couldn't save him Ladybug...I couldn't…" Plagg collapsed exhausted. He had flown all night to find Ladybug because he didn't know where else to go. Tikki flew over to him and held his head. Not again. Poor Plagg had lost too many Kittens in his life.

Alice sat unmoving, the wind and the rain swirling outside in the pre-dawn light. "Tell me Plagg." She spoke, her voice barely above a whisper. "Tell me everything."

"Jack was with allied forces at Villers-Bretonneux." Plagg began. "The town had been taken by the German tanks and the allies were outnumbered and couldn't break past the machine gunners. Jack led a small group of skirmishers who took out the machine gun posts, allowing the Australian brigades to get through. They pushed the Germans back and retook the ground." Plagg paused shaking his head, trying to find the words for the memory that flashed through his mind. "He got caught in the crossfire before the German retreat. He...he wouldn't leave his men to transform and took a bullet while covering for them." Plagg couldn't speak anymore and closed his eyes as Tikki held him.

Alice got up and found some food from her ration supply to give to the cat kwami. It wasn't camembert, but Plagg didn't complain. Alice took deep breaths. She wouldn't cry, not yet. Taking the ring she ran her fingers carefully over its flat silver surface. She undid the chain around her neck and slid the ring onto it where it dangled next to her locket, a parting gift from Jack. Soon Plagg was sound asleep, grief and exhaustion taking its toll. Once Alice was sure Plagg wouldn't hear her, she let the tears flow.

Not knowing where Master Fu was hiding, Alice kept Plagg with her and Tikki. In many ways she was grateful to have that piece of Jack still with her. Between the three of them, they saved as many as they could. The patients in the field hospital called her 'The Angel of Light' because no one died on her watch. They did not know that it was really the two kwamis doing all the work, Tikki and Plagg glad to do what they could to send as many soldiers home as possible to their families. They did it for Jack.

After the war ended, Alice spent the next 10 years travelling and performing on stages all over Europe. She was an excellent dancer, her Ladybug flexibility helping to make her somewhat of a celebrity, but it was really just an escape. Escape from London, escape from memories and in a way, escape from Master Fu. Although adored by her many fans, Tikki and Plagg were her only constant companions and she dreaded the day she would have to give them up.

Eventually, on a grey day in Geneva, a familiar green turtle kwami approached her. Alice knew it was time to stop running. She followed Wayzz obediently to Master Fu, calling upon her transformation for the first time since the war ended. Although she loved the exhilaration of running across the rooftops once more, the memories still hurt. It just wasn't the same without Cat Noir beside her. They came to a stop above a small hotel where Master Fu was staying. He was leaving in the morning, destination unknown. The small Chinaman must have been over one hundred years old, but he still looked the same as he did the day he gave Alice her Miraculous as a 20 year old.

"I am sorry to ask this of you Alice. I know what Tikki and Plagg have meant to you all these years." Alice looked away, guilt washed over her.

"I'm sorry I ran away with them Master. They were not mine to keep, it...it's just that…" She closed her eyes because she was determined not to cry.

"I understand Alice." He placed a hand on her arm to comfort her. "We were never far away. Wayzz and I have always been there near by you. I would not be taking Tikki and Plagg from you now but I fear that another war may be brewing in the future. Wayzz has felt it too. I need time for the kwamis to rest before I find a new Ladybug and…" He decided not to say it out loud. For Alice there would only ever be one Cat Noir.

The Guardian took out the Miracle Box and opened it. Alice mentally noted the Butterfly and the Peacock were still missing, but Master Fu had always refused to speak of it. All Alice knew was they were lost when the temple was destroyed, but she knew better than to ask questions.

Tikki flew up to Alice and hugged her against her cheek. "Will you be alright now Alice? Do you need me to stay a little longer!"

"I'll be alright Tikki." Alice lowered her eyes, wrapping her arms around herself. "I should have told him before Tikki. 5 years we loved each other behind our masks, and I only had one day to hold him without them. I loved him Tikki, so much." She hugged the little red kwami one more time before taking off her earrings and handing them to the little Kwami. "You have been my best friend Tikki, your next Ladybug will be lucky to have you."

After Tikki disappeared into the box, Alice turned to Plagg. His ears were down and he wouldn't look at her. Alice held out her hand and he flew into it as she held him tenderly, scratching him between the ears. "I never blamed you Plagg. We both knew what he was like, always charging in at the head." She smiled at him and Plagg let out a deep sigh.

"He saved them all Alice. He was one of the bravest Kittens I've known."

"And you saved me Plagg, more than you could ever know." His ears drooped down again.

"He loved you Alice. He was so happy when he found it was you. Your letters and the picture of you he carried with him kept him going through those miserable nights in the trenches. That and the thought of you being together again"

Alice wiped the tears away from her eyes before she undid her necklace, taking off the ring and handing it to Plagg. "Take good care of your next Kitten Plagg. Make sure he gets you lots on camembert." Plagg took the ring kissing Alice on the cheek before he disappeared after Tikki into the box.

"You carried with you the ultimate power for the last 10 years Alice. You were never tempted to use it yourself and bring him back?" Alice wrapped her arms back around herself, still looking at the Miracle Box where Tikki and Plagg had disappeared in to.

"It would have been the wrong thing to do Master. He wouldn't have wanted that. I was still Ladybug and he… He will always be my Cat Noir, even if it's only in my heart."

"Where will you go now." Master Fu asked.

"London." She looked at him with a soft smile on her face. "I think it's time I went home."

Alice was stirred from her thoughts when an announcement came that the train would finally depart in twenty minutes if anyone wanted to stretch their legs on the platform. Alice put on her favourite red coat and alighted from the train. It was so strange not having Tikki and Plagg with her anymore. she wasn't sure how she was ever going to get used to it, knowing she would never see them or Master Fu again. She opened her locket which now hung alone, and let a tear fall as she looked at the only picture she had of her Kitty transformed. Even though they had revealed themselves, she would always think of him this way. In the dim lights her breath hung in the heavy frost as her long dark hair took flight in the biting wind. It was late, but she was wide awake. Soon she would be back in London for the first time in more than 10 years. She suddenly felt so alone and unprepared. She was no longer Ladybug, she was no longer a dancer, she was just Alice.

As she walked back to the train she spotted a small black blob huddled near some seats. Approaching it, she heard a faint meowing and carefully picked up the small creature. Instantly the tiny kitten buried itself in her coat and began to purr. The sound was soothing and Alice was awash with a clam she thought she had lost forever. Lifting the little bundle up she looked into it's deep emerald eyes. His eyes. "It's ok little one." She whispered. "You're not alone anymore. I'll take care of you."

She reboarded the train with her new companion and made him a cosy bed with her scarf in a hat box. As the train lumbered out of the station her heart warmed against the cold night and she smiled drifting off to sleep to the sound of the wheels clacking on the tracks, and the purr of her little fluffy guardian angel.


End file.
